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Saturday, January 31, 2015

Fairly Simple Knit Hat (With a Pom-Pom!)

I remember long ago thinking, "I can't wait until life gets easy." Well, speaking from the perspective of a now senior-citizen, it never will be "easy". There will be challenges and every challenge that you conquer will just make you stronger for the next one that comes along.Work has been very challenging lately. I've fed into that mindset and found myself stressing out. It was time to actively refute that and find peace. For me, if you have followed this blog, peace comes in gardening, making very calorie filled treats or needlework of some sort. These last few weeks have provided lots of incentive for those treats and knitting projects!I found a pattern on Pinterest for "The Vermonter Hat". It required one skein of chunky yarn and size 11 needles - 16" circular needles and double points. It had a VERY simple pattern - one that you can finish quickly and feel a tremendous feeling of accomplishment! If you are a novice knitter, this is a great pattern. PLEASE don't let the thought of circular and double pointed needles scare you off - they're easy to use.

The link to the pattern will be posted below but if you find me on Pinterest, it's there too! Start out with casting on 45 stitches on the circular needles. Make sure they are 16" - if you get the 29", they will be too long and you won't be able to connect the stitches to make the circle. Hint to success - use YouTube. If you don't know how to cast on, find a video. If you don't know the basic knit or purl stitches (these are the only two you use in this pattern), find a video. If you've knitted in the past, the videos can refresh your memory!The trickiest part may be the transferring of one stitch from the right needle to the left on the first row and knitting them together to make the circle. After that, it's clear sailing!!

Two inches of knit-purl are followed by four rows of knit and one of purl. When you get to the part of the pattern where you need to decrease and make the top of the hat smaller, you will eventually need the double pointed needles. Just use them as regular needles - they just allow you to make your circle smaller and smaller. In addition to the three that you see below, you have one additional that you use to knit/purl.

When you finally tie the final six stitches together to finish off the hat, you add a pom pom and then you're done! Once you get the hang of it, you can finish one of these in a couple of hours.

Love this pattern and am enjoying using different types of yarn. And yes, I had to pull it apart a couple of times and start over, but hey, that's how it goes!

About Me

I'm so glad you found me! I hope you enjoy browsing this blog. As you can see, I get bored easily and bounce from project to project. I hope you can find something here that you'll enjoy trying. All recipes and how-to's are on the blog as well. Please feel free to leave comments - I would love to hear from you!